This LebEnv article differs from the rest in that it deals with the
urban environment rather than the natural. Still, it is an environmental
issue. A livable city results in a healthy population and encourages people
to stay there rather than look elsewhere (the countryside) for better places
to live. I use as an example west Beirut simply because I grew up there; this
should not be seen as favoring one part of the city over another.

When I lived in Beirut, I thought of the city as being overcrowded,
ugly, poorly planned; as something better off demolished and rebuilt from
scratch. When I moved to the U.S., I thought the cities there, with their
individual houses and large shopping centers, were the best creation under
the sun.

After a decade, my perceptions have changed. The area I live in, the
Greater Phoenix area in Arizona, is too sprawled out, covering an area nearly
the size of all of Lebanon, and yet the population of the entire area is only
twice that of Beirut. The shopping centers are separated from neighborhoods
by parking lots, concrete walls, and wide streets with high-speed traffic.
The only reasonable way for most people to get there is by car. Shopping and
other errands entail multiple trips by car and can take half a day. Every
outing requires drawing a mental map of all the places to be visited for
maximum saving of time and distance. Workplaces are many miles away,
requiring long commutes on freeways clogged with cars and huge, smelly
trucks. Bus service is limited. The movie theaters, restaurants, and other
entertainment venues are often far apart and surrounded by asphalt so that a
night on the town involves driving all over the place. An ugly brown cloud
hangs over the area in the winter, to the dismay of the Chamber of Commerce.
The streets are laid out in a boring grid, and every intersection looks like
the other one. In the neighborhoods, the houses are separated from each other
by walls; people drive into their enclosed garages, minimizing contact with
neighbors.

This car-oriented urban design encourages people to live anywhere.
Thus, the beautiful desert areas on the fringes of the metropolitan area are
being destroyed at the annual rate of roughly 35 square kilometers, an area
larger than Greater Beirut. Meanwhile, the older sections around the downtown
decay and are overtaken by armed gangs.

In short, Car is King.

When I revisited Beirut, I had a different perspective of what a real
city should be like. Underneath the ugly buildings and traffic, I discovered
a side of Beirut I had been oblivious to. All of a sudden, it seemed to be
very small and cozy, almost like a village, and thus easy to walk around. The
irregular layout of the city provided for easily recognizable landmarks and
added identity to the various neighborhoods. I could reach most parts of Ras
Beirut on foot in under 25 minutes. The streets were clogged with cars, but,
being narrow, were relatively easy to cross. Any part of Beirut and many
parts of Lebanon can be reached by "service" or taxi. Crime is rare (by U.S.
standards), and one can actually walk at night without fearing for his/her
life!

The shops are lined up along the sidewalks, from which they are easily
accessible. It is possible to do all you shopping on foot in a couple of
hours, visiting a dozen stores in a distance of perhaps a kilometer. You name
it, it's there and you can walk to it: your local grocer ("dikkanji") on the
ground floor of the building you live in where you can buy tomatoes or an
ice-cream bar; the little stationary store around the corner where you can
make a photocopy and buy a newspaper; the small boutique selling the latest
fashions; the bookstore where you can dig out books printed before the war;
the record shop for the latest music; your barber; the bank; the shoe repair
shop; the fragrant flower shop ... Shop owners know their customers by their
first name. You always bump into friends and stop to talk. Push carts
("arabiyyat") provide a colorful addition to the streets and a livelihood for
people who cannot afford to own stores. Places of worship are part of the
city, not surrounded by seas of asphalt, as the majority of worshipers can,
and do, walk to them. And, let's not forget the countless restaurants and
food stands that keep pulling at your nose with their aromas as you walk by.
The movie theaters are everywhere. You can be strolling in the street, see
something on display, and buy it on the spot. Above those stores and theaters
are office buildings; many people live just a few minutes away by foot from
their work.

The reason for the pedestrian-oriented convenience is that most of
Beirut was laid out before cars were invented, as well as the fact that
Beirut is limited by the sea, and that the country, as a whole, is small so
that land cannot be wasted.

Still, Beirut has its faults, all of which can be repaired. These are
just a few:

Cars: Unfortunately, many Beirutis consider their city too big and
insist on driving short distances, even if it means spending more time going
around in circles looking for parking than it would have taken to walk. The
bane of Beirut, I came to realize, is cars. Like Americans, too many Lebanese
are in love with automobiles. They, cars, are what make it such an unpleasant
city to live in. Getting rid of the smelly, noisy electrical generators
simply requires that electrical power be reestablished; it will be more
difficult to cut down on car use. Public transportation needs to be improved.
The streets need to be made safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Pedestrian traffic: Pedestrians need to be assured that no cars will
park on the sidewalk and block their way, and trees need to be planted to
provide shade in the summer. (Both have already been done in some areas.)
Pedestrian zones like those of every large city need to be established.
Before the war, Hamra Street was proposed as a pedestrian area, but the plan
was opposed by merchants. It's an idea whose time has come; some of the most
successful businesses are those in areas with heavy foot traffic. (The
rebuilt downtown area will have car-free areas.) Most of all, more Lebanese
need to realize that it is good for health, and not a shame, to walk.

Parks: Another lacking amenity is parks. Because of poor planning by
previous governments, there is a lack of open space for citizens. Thus,
children play football in dusty lots and on the streets. More fortunate
people with access to the AUB campus use it as an outlet. The government
needs to get hold of what remaining large unbuilt parcels remain in Beirut,
perhaps through land exchanges, to create parks. The best area that remains
is the open space between the Corniche and the sea in the Rawcheh area. It is
now being used as an informal park and beach, with litter everywhere and
people driving in many places. That area could be a world-class park.
Noise: Beirut is a very noisy city. Once generators are silenced, the main
major source of noise is... cars! The less cars, the less noise. A ban on bad
mufflers and on blowing horns (except for emergencies) is needed.

Air Pollution: Again, cars are the main source. Less cars, cleaner air!

American cities struggle to cut down on traffic congestion, but they are
hampered with the legacy of an outdated urban design that elevates cars above
all else. Unfortunately, many areas outside Beirut (Examples: Jounieh,
Khaldeh-Aramoun) have been built with little planning. Some do not even
provide sidewalks, and people there are more dependent on their cars than in
the older parts of the city. Just as in America, there are Pizza Huts and
Kentucky Fried Chickens that can only be driven to, as they are next to main
boulevards and surrounded by asphalt. On the other hand, Beirut proper, for
all its faults, has a more ideal urban design. With a little bit of planning
and liberation from dependence on private automobiles, Beirut can become one
of the best cities of the world to live in!